1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing wireless communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for switching a session of a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been an increased use and application of a wireless communication system that uses a data packet service. For example, it is a current trend that a Home enhanced Node B (HeNB) is installed indoors, such as at home or in an office. The HeNB installed indoors is generally called a femto base station. With a femto base station, which provides a femto cell as a service coverage area, a user is provided access to wired or wireless communications by using a User Equipment (UE) within the femto cell. In contrast, a base station and a cell, each of which has a relatively normal size and a normal function, are called a macro base station and a macro cell, respectively.
Using a femto base station, all of the data packets transmitted from a UE within a femto cell are transmitted through the femto base station to a donor network located within a macro cell, and are then transmitted through the donor network to a corresponding network. Therefore, it is problematic in that the data transmitted from the UE must pass through the donor network before being transmitted to its destination.
That is, even data packets, which need not pass through a donor network, must pass through the donor network according to the current configuration. For example, when a user wants to access the Internet through a UE within a femto cell in order to control an appliance within a home or an office, the data packets transmitted from the UE are transferred to the home appliance after passing through a donor network. This causes an unnecessary increase in load due to the data packet transmission through the donor network, and a delay in the transmission of the data packets due to the inefficient data packet transmission path.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method that enables a UE located within a femto cell to perform a communication with a home appliance without passing through a donor network, and a method that enables a UE located within a femto cell to perform a direct communication with an external Internet network.